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Bill and Melinda Gates have just published their new plans for the poor of the world. They plan to give mobile phones to them and turn Africa (and other parts) into a digital money society. “Mobile banking will help the poor transform their lives,” they claimed in their annual letter. The plan will take fifteen years.

“..in the next 15 years digital banking will give the poor more control over their assets..” Ha! As if!

Anybody in the developed world will be able to decipher that statement as “…in the next 15 years digital banking will give the banks more control over the poor’s assets..”

They go on to say “The key to this will be mobile phones….by 2030, 2 billion people who don’t have a bank account today will be storing money and making payment with their phones.”

I will leave a link to The letter below in which they map out other plans for the poor people, including better education software, hardier crops, more efficient fertilizer (ahem) and new vaccines.

I genuinely want to feel optimistic for the poor but I’m just not feeling it. What I am feeling is “the system” will enslave even more people thanks to this plan. This little blog post will do nothing to stop the madness that is about to flood the third world. While lots of us are trying to unplug from the system and get back to basics it can be hard to accept that others don’t see things our way. We mustn’t stand in the way of progress, old boy! But soon, fifteen years to be exact, there won’t be a corner of the globe left untouched by the globalist psychopaths with their vision for a brave new world.

At the end of The Letter the Gates Foundation asks for our approval by signing up to become a member of the ‘Global Citizen’ club. Y’know, it is starting to look like this New World Order fantasy that the elite used to dream about and the Bible used to warn about is actually starting to click together only I always imagined we would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into it rather than willingly signing up.

In a television interview on MSNBC Melinda Gates, with a straight face, told the viewers “..those people will be able to save tiny amounts of money…they’re not welcome in the banks, but when they’re out on the farm they can save a dollar a day or two dollars a day on their phone..”

So the banks don’t want to meet the poor but they want their dollar via digital transfer? It reminds me of the bank scene in Mary Poppins where the bank owners went through hell to get a young lad to hand over tuppence (two pence).

Once again the serpent sinks its fangs. It truly saddens me to see Africans and other decent people being sold yet again into slavery. Nothing is sacred or off-limits, it seems.

That is an actual piece of The Berlin Wall. It sits on my mantelpiece at home and reminds me that things can change and things do change. No matter what the politicians and media tell us, anybody who witnessed the wall being toppled will testify to the power of people.

Ordinary, everyday people like you and I toppled that wall. Not politicians, not armies, not rock stars…just ordinary humble folk who collectively said “Enough is enough!”

“The truth will set you free.” Jesus Christ said those words long before Jimi Hendrix. Not everybody knows that. The media doesn’t want you to know that either.

In Ireland at the moment there is a peaceful revolution taking place. We, the people, have endured six years of austerity measures. Big taxes on this and that and everything. Recently our government decided to privatise our water and charge us ridiculous prices for the pleasure of having water come from a tap.

But this time the people have had enough. One by one we started to get off our knees and rise up. Marches were organised. Social media was used to spread the word. I put my shoulder to the wheel by getting onto the local radio shows to spread the news to the non-internet folk. The country started to awaken, one by one.

Last Saturday, the largest, most peaceful march in the history of our country took place. 150,000 people pulled on their overcoats and went outside in God’s free rainfall and marched shoulder to shoulder in defiance of the latest tax. Some marched for anti-privatisation of our water and others marched simply because they had nothing left to give. The cuts had taken their toll on the people.

One placard I saw carried the slogan “The only thing left to cut…is our throats.”

The following day there was one newspaper in particular which caught my eye. It showed a cartoon scene of a riot taking place with the heading “Open revolt.” It caught my eye because the cartoon scene was an attempt by the newspaper to discredit the folks who marched the previous day. There was no violent scene to show, so they invented one. I bought the paper and kept it safe.

Fast forward to the following Friday (two days ago). In a last ditch attempt to give all who were opposed to extra water taxes and water meter installations a bad name, the daily newspaper had an actual photo of a riot on its front cover. In tiny print below, the caption mentioned that the photo was from Brussels. But IN LARGE PRINT was the headline “Water meter works cancelled” along with a story that people had started to get violent with the men installing water meters.

The mission of those two front pages was clear to me.; to discredit anybody who didn’t say ‘yes’ to the government’s water agenda. Lots of folk don’t read newspapers but lots of folk will catch a glimpse of the front pages on their way past newspaper stands. The subconscious will fill in the blanks. This is the oldest trick in the media book.

I called it! I had enough of this carry on. I called it on Friday on social media. On Saturday a few folks ran with my theory. One guy uploaded a video about it. Another did a breakdown of the front page to dumb it down for easy learning. They didn’t credit me in their work but it’s not the end of the world. The ego is the invention of the devil…(evil laugh).

Last night the video had gone viral. The other guy’s post had done the same. But I see this morning that his post was removed. “They” haven’t removed my photo because my photo and my theory belong to me. Just like the theories of the newspapers.

The cat is out of the bag. Just like 25 years ago when the first few ordinary, everyday folk made it to the other side….the tsunami of people and people power followed. I reckon this date is reserved by God for God’s people, and God’s gifts of freedom and His natural resources.

It’s like deja vu. I have too many irons in the fire…again. So I intend to take a break for a while. Gotta get my priorities in order.

If, in the meantime, I think of something that will change the world, you guys will be first to hear about it.

My blog has made it, by some mistake, to the short list of the ‘best humour blogs’ in Ireland. I haven’t worn my funny cap in months. Strange. Best of luck to the remaining participants.

On the car journey home from work today, my workmate and myself were listening to the news on the radio. He had lived across the pond, in Boston, for a few years. He has fond memories of the States, some of which he retells to me on our journeys home.

But today on the radio the newsreader told the heartbreaking tale of a young girl who accidentally shot her gun instructor…with an Uzi !! That’s a submachine gun. It ‘sprays’ bullets.

I will pray that the girl will fully recover from the eyewitness shock of what a gun actually does. The poor girl. May God watch over her.

“…the girl was nine years old,” finished the newsreader.

With that, my workmate starts nodding and goes “And they can’t order a beer until they’re 21.”

A while back the Daily Prompt on WordPress asked me if there was something in my collection that I would like to read again. At the time I didn’t respond to the prompt. Sometimes I find it hard to make choices. That was one of those times.

Then last week I recalled a book that left a lasting impact on me. Whenever I hear about kidnappings and hostages I think of a man called Brian Keenan. A Belfast man who went to Beirut for a change of scenery, in 1985. Bad decision. He was kidnapped and held hostage for four and a half years! That’s a long time. Most of that time in darkened solitary confinement, or what the prison movies call The hole.

It’s not a book about politics. It is a testimony to willpower. In the book, the reader is not only in the cell, the reader is allowed inside his head. My brief review doesn’t do justice to this book, but in this age with the ‘Power of positive thoughts’ being all the rage, Brian Keenan’s book ‘An evil cradling’ blows everything else away when it comes to coping with circumstances. He has walked the walk, albeit within the confines of a tiny cell.

I will read it again.

Getting back to today’s Daily Prompt. It asks..If I was given a robot, which task would I use it for?

I sometimes feel pity for the executioners. Not the type who would video record an execution for the torment of a victim’s family! But the traditional executioner down through history. A judge and jury call the shots but the buck always stops with him.

I try to imagine what it must be like for him, when he is alone at night with his thoughts. He can’t explain his actions away with terms like ‘self defence’. It is an unnecessary kill. I feel sorry for him sometimes.

In Ireland last week the abortion debate has started again. I have never been in that situation so I am not qualified to judge. But there is one issue which really upsets me. Suicide risk of the pregnant female is often given as being reasonable grounds for granting an abortion.

My question is this… What about the doctor? What if, after a few abortions, he breaks down? What if he becomes suicidal?

It’s very easy to be judge and jury. Being executioner is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Any of my regular readers (Hi Mom) will know that I have a strong dislike for leaders who command whole armies from the comfort of an office. No blood on his / her hands!

I suppose what I am trying to say is that perhaps it is good to put ourselves in the shoes of those holding the syringe or whatever instrument they use. I feel sorry for those people, sometimes. They aren’t robots.

Our team won! We are through to the semi finals! I kept it together in the old ‘fear of heights’ department!

It was a good day. Our luck was in. Then something happened on the car journey home which reminded me just how lucky I am.

The radio was on and the sports commentators were giving the post match analysis. Every now and then they would read out a comment which they had received via phone or email. Most of these were the usual comments, like…

“Armagh was robbed!” or “The better team lost.” or “Donegal will hammer Dublin in the semi final,” (which they will). But in the middle of all these was a comment which sent me into a daydream.

“Michael Healey would like to say thanks for all the thrilling live match commentary down through the years. Michael has been blind since birth.”

The chat continued on the radio and also in the back seat but I was now miles away, in Michael’s kitchen. Blind since birth! He doesn’t know the colours of the pitch, the players, the flags, anything. He doesn’t know colours. He has never seen a player jump to catch a high ball. He has never seen a ball soar through the air or between the posts.

In fact he doesn’t have a fear of heights because, high seats or low seats, they are all the same to him.

And yet he takes the time to say thanks.

Michael Healey, whoever you are, we the people with eyes that work are grateful to you for showing us how to cope, and still be thankful.

I spoke on our local radio station today. I was great! You should’ve been there.

People all over County Donegal stopped what they were doing just to hear my words of wisdom. You could’ve heard a pin drop.

There was a lady speaking via phone to the host. She was waiting at her home to be collected by the local police and whisked off to prison. The sentence had been handed down a few days previous. Her crime? She wanted to teach her children at home.

She and her husband have six children. They have home schooled them all so far. The eldest is now 27 and having a successful career, as are the following two. The remaining three children are still at various stages of learning. From what I gathered, the children are taught at home until in around the early teens. After that, they are encouraged to take the next step, which is usually a more specialised form of education.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and well…so far so good. But…

There is always a but. The department of education (the state) couldn’t just leave it be. Oh no, that would be too much like common sense. They dragged the woman through the courts in an attempt to force her to submit to the state’s system. She refused. And now she is headed for the slammer.

Driving along, listening to the radio, I was so impressed by her version of things that I pulled over and sent a little text message of support into the radio station.

Well, lo and behold, the station phoned me back asking, no begging, me to join in the conversation live on air. I obliged.

The truth is I am not really that hot at public speaking. What I wanted to say came out okay but my heart was going a mile a minute, and my hands were sweating like crazy. Of course the host, being neutral in opinion, didn’t give me an easy ride either. But all in all it went alright .

After the call, I slunk back in my driver’s seat and ran the conversation back in my mind’s ear. Smiling to myself at how knowledgeable I sounded.

Just then, my phone bleeped. It was a text message from my boss, who also happens to be my younger brother. It read as follows : “If you don’t get back to your feckin work soon, you will have plenty of time to home-school your own kids!!!”